Who he is, and how he got there
by 20 pounds of crazy
Summary: This is a collection of stories about my favorite character, Gary. Read, review, enjoy
1. First Day of School

Sandra Bell was hating every minute of this. Today was Gary's first day of school, which for most parents would be a proud day, but for Sandra, things were different. Her son was diagnosed with Autism as a three year old. Since then, she's had to put a lot of time- and money- in to helping her son. She hired the best doctors and took him to the best hospitals, and now enrolled Gary in the best specialized school for miles around.

She watched the other kids and was filled with something close to thankfulness, but not exactly. Why should she be thankful for this? Nevertheless as she looked around the room she said a silent _thank you_. She saw other boys and girls running around screaming and taking toys from each other. She saw others who kept hitting themselves on their chests* and even others who hid in the corners. Despite the research from the internet and the doctors' information, Sandra was scared. She'd never encountered anything like this before. She looked down at her son who seemed shy in a crowd like this. His hands were moving in front of his face and he was looking off into space, but he was silent.

Sandra saw the other parents look at her and knew they were jealous. The other parents would try not to be, but because Gary was a highly functioning autistic he acted differently and would be put in a separate class at school.

Just then, a group of happy teachers (they seemed too happy for a place like this, Sandra thought) came out to the waiting room. They introduced themselves and started calling the names of the kids that would be going with them. Gary was the fourth person called. Sandra grabbed his hand and pulled him gently towards a smiling brunette. "Hi Gary!" she exclaimed with so much enthusiasm he actually looked near her (never eye contact, though). "My name is Melissa. We are going to have such a fun time!"

Gary mumbled "fun time" under his breath. Sandra knew early on that his 'stim' was repetition. He repeated almost everything he heard. The doctors offered medication to reduce this, but Sandra would never. She put it off as a little boy being curious about new words.

With that, Melissa took Gary and five other kids off into a purple room. Sandra felt strange. For the first time in what seemed like ages, she had this enormous weight off her shoulder. As soon as he was out of sight, she missed him immensely, but felt so much relief. She hoped with all her heart that things would start going well for her and Gary.

* * *

><p>At exactly 3:30PM, Sandra walked through the brightly colored doors to pick up Gary from school. A lot of the other parents were already there. The first class to come out was one with over twenty children. It was obvious they were lower functioning than the other classes. The two teachers were trying their hardest to make sure every child found their parent, but it was difficult because they were all so loud.<p>

A few minutes later, Gary's class came out. Melissa and a helper with a name tag that said Joey were more successful at helping the kids find their parents. Gary ran over and hugged Sandra's legs.

"Hey, Gary!" she said. "How was your first day of school?"

He didn't reply, but she was fine with that. She decided to take him out for a bite to eat; maybe that would coax him to say a few words about his new school.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hi! Thanks for reading. From this point on I'll be going WAY out of order. ****Next topic- Gary and Sandra meet Rosen!**** Whatever pops into my head is what I'm going to write. If you have any suggestions or ideas that pop in **_**your **_**head I would love to hear them and possibly write about them. Also, reviews make me write faster. Ball's in your court, reader :)**

*For those of you who don't know a lot about autism, this is called stimming. It's basically a strange habit that they have which helps them calm down or deal with sensory overload or other emotions. (ie: hitting, flapping their arms, rocking back and forth, things like this)


	2. Finding a Solution pt 1

**A/N: Sorry, I'm going completely out of order. I'm just going to write when an idea pops in my head. This takes place when Gary's older. I don't know how old he is now, so let's just say a few years before present day.**

Life went on, and even after his years at school, Gary became a little better at expressing himself. Still, Sandra had questions about some things. She never remembered any of the doctors' names whom she asked to consult, though; they all told her the same thing- his behavior could be explained by his autism. Sandra was concerned there was something else, though. Gary never stopped waving his hands in front of his face. He was constantly looking at something that wasn't there. Sandra had a feeling she couldn't shake, a feeling that this was something else.

Whenever he was in a place with a lot of people, he got a headache. Everyone said he was encountering too much stimulation, but he truly got a horrible headache. Some days it was so bad that Gary would run around and turn off all of the televisions, radios, and even lights. Those days were the worst; he became so angry so quickly that anything could set him off.

Those days were the reason why Sandra visited doctor after doctor. She stuck to her gut, and longed to find someone with an answer. For years, Gary became more sensitive to everything. Horror filled her when one doctor brought up institutionalization. She was so shocked that she hit him- hard. After that, she became more and more desperate to find an answer.

Sandra didn't keep in touch with a lot of parents from Gary's school after he left; she was only friends with two or three. One of them, Megan, gave her the name of a doctor who she took her daughter to a few times. His name was Dr. Richmond. Willing to try anything, Sandra called his office and set up a meeting. It definitely didn't go the way Sandra thought it would…

"I'm sorry, Ms. Bell," he said, "but I'm afraid I can't do anything. I know you've been to a lot of doctors who have told you things like I did, but-"

"No," Sandra said angrily. "They haven't told me things _like_ this; they've told me _exactly _this. I know Gary more than anyone, and I can say with one hundred percent certainty that his condition has gotten worse. Doctor after freaking doctor has told me this exact speech. 'It's the autism' or 'I can give him some medication' or 'there's nothing we can do'. I've heard everything. Please, I know this isn't the autism. Just help him. Please."

He looked at her for a moment and sighed. "I can try. That's all I can guarantee. I can't promise anything." He hit a button on his desk and paged a nurse to bring Gary in from the waiting room.

"Hey, buddy," Dr. Richmond said. "How have you been?"

Gary didn't say anything. Dr. Richmond took an instrument off his desk and looked into Gary's eyes. Gary pulled back. "Ow," he said.

"Sorry, Gary," he apologized, "but I have to do this. So I hear you've been getting headaches. When do you get them?"

"From the lights."

Dr. Richmond looked at Sandra. "Autism causes people to be oversensitive to things such as lights."

Sandra didn't even falter. "He doesn't mean those lights. Gary, what can you see?"

After a long moment Gary started talking. "I can see things that others can't. Colors and shapes. I can see computers and the TV and other things in my head."

Dr. Richmond looked at him for a long moment. He was definitely confused. "What can you see right now?"

Gary moved his hands in front of his eyes. "I can see your phone. It's a purple line. And your computer. That's a green one."

"This is… strange," Dr. Richmond muttered. He looked at Gary's moving hands, then turned to Sandra and started writing something on a slip of paper. "I've never seen anything like this. I don't think I can do anything, but I'm going to give you the name of a great doctor- possibly one of the greatest in the world. If he can't do anything for you, then no one can. Good luck."

As he left the room, Sandra looked at the scraggly writing on the paper and felt a mixture of emotions. Finally, someone listened to her. Finally, someone helped her. And finally, they were going to get to the bottom of this.


	3. Finding a Solution pt 2

Exactly one week later, Sandra and Gary were on their way to Dr. Rosen's office. On the phone he said he didn't have an official practice, but he worked at an office. Doing what, he would not say. Sandra walked tentatively through the hall, Gary at her heels. His hands never stopped moving. They passed a conference room with three people in it, but Sandra had a feeling none of them were doctors. There were two girls and one guy, and it seemed like they were bickering over something. They looked up as Sandra and Gary walked past.

* * *

><p>"What do you think?" asked Bill, looking out at Gary. "Mental patient or alpha?"<p>

"Bill stop," said Rachel. "That's not nice."

"He seems so young," Nina commented. They watched as Gary's hands moved in front of his head and he looked off into the distance at something.

Bill chuckled. "Definitely mental patient."

* * *

><p>Dr. Rosen walked out of his office and almost right into Sandra and Gary. "I'm terribly sorry," he said politely. "My name is Dr. Rosen. You must be Sandra and Gary."<p>

"Yes," Sandra said. "Thank you so much for seeing us. Really, it means a lot."

Rosen nodded. "I understand; Dr. Richmond has told me everything you've been through. I'll just be glad if I can help. Hello, Gary."

Gary muttered something to himself. Sandra nudged him and told him to say hi. "Hi," he said abruptly.

Dr. Rosen invited them into his office to sit. He asked Sandra a few questions about herself and then about Gary, like how long has he been doing this and when did it get worse.

"It got worse a few years ago," she said. "I've been trying so hard to get a doctor to see him, but because of the autism they won't hear me out." She laughed and shook her head. "You don't understand how many rejections I've been through in the past five years."

Rosen nodded. "I know that can be frustrating. I'm just glad you've never given up. I think I can help Gary."

With that, Sandra gasped. She did not think he would say that, especially not in the first ten minutes! A huge wave of relief hit her and she felt like crying, but Gary needed her right now. She swallowed and said, "Wow. Thank you. So much."

Dr. Rosen watched Gary as his hands danced. He addressed Sandra as he said, "Gary seems to have a fascination with his hands, which is very common with autism." He rummaged through his drawers and pulled out a wrist band. "Here, Gary." Not used to being offered presents, Gary took it and put it on his wrist.

"Every time you feel nervous or sad or angry or stressed, I want you to pull on that," instructed Dr. Rosen. Gary nodded. He started fidgeting with his new gift.

"That should help somewhat," Rosen said to Sandra. "Now, I want to hear more about the past few years."

She took a deep breath and started. "Ever since he was a kid he would do this thing with his hands," she did her best demonstration, "and I never really thought anything of it until recently. When he is in a crowd or group of people he does it more. He gets headaches really badly. Some days it's so bad that he goes around the house and turns off all of the lights, TVs, computers; once he even unplugged the microwave."

Dr. Rosen nodded to her to continue. "He says he can see things that I can't. He says… this is going to sound crazy, but he says he can see phones and computers."

"And TVs," Gary added without looking away from his wristband.

"That's very interesting," said Dr. Rosen. "So from what you've said, I can gather that Gary is very sensitive to anything and everything electric. That's very interesting," he repeated. Just then his computer dinged.

"You have an email," Gary said. Rosen nodded. "Who is Agent Wilson? He says it's urgent. You should read it."

Rosen's eyes grew wide, and so did Sandra's. Never before now had Gary felt the need to prove himself. Rosen clicked his mouse and sure enough, Wilson had emailed him about an alpha his team had recently caught.

"I'm going to try something," Rosen said. He typed something on his phone. "What did I just write, Gary?"

"Testing 1, 2, 3. Why did you write that?"

"One more thing, Gary," he said. He walked out of the office and into the conference room. He turned on the television. Rachel, Bill, and Nina all gave him a curious look. Rosen walked back. Before he could ask anything, Gary started snapping his wrist band.

"Ouch," he complained. "It's really fuzzy. Turn it off. My head hurts."

"That's because I put it on a channel that our satellite doesn't receive," Dr. Rosen said.

"Dr. Rosen, what does this mean?" pleaded Sandra.

"It means that Gary has a gift. On the phone you were wondering what I truly do for a living. I work with an extraordinary group of people called Alphas. These people have unique aspects that no one else has. Your son is an Alpha. He has the ability to read electromagnetic waves. That is why he is oversensitive to lights and electronics."

Sandra was slow to comprehend. "Wait, so- so Gary isn't autistic?"

"With every Alpha comes a downside. Gary, for example, has a highly developed portion of his brain." He turned to Gary to give a simpler explanation. "A part of your brain grew bigger than most people's, so you can now see electromagnetic wavelengths. I'm not claiming to be completely sure about this due to the fact that I don't have any brain scans for reference, but it seems that the area _around_ the enlarged brain space also grew a little bigger." Back to Sandra. "That would explain his autism, and why he is highly functioning- that part of the brain is only slightly larger than normal."

"Wow. This is a lot to comprehend," confessed Sandra. "So, now what?"

"I would still like to give him weekly sessions as we had planned on the phone. But now, I would like to ask you two a question," Dr. Rosen stated.

Sandra nodded. "Anything."

"Gary, how would you like a job?"


End file.
